McGrady poured in 48 points as the Orlando Magic raced to a big
lead and stopped a 10-game losing streak against the Milwaukee
Bucks with a 101-91 victory.

It was the first meeting between the Central Division clubs
since Bucks coach George Karl -- the highest-paid coach in the
league -- made comments in an Esquire magazine article about
how he disagreed with how some of the younger NBA coaches got
their jobs, singling out Rivers. Rivers is among the youngest
coaches and took exception to some of Karl's comments.

Prior to this contest, Rivers made a gracious gesture as he
went over and shook Karl's hand.

"I just thought, Let's move on," Rivers said. "I thought it
would be a good thing to do. I thought about it last night, and
then forgot until I walked on the floor today. We said we'll
talk in the summer; we'll go boating. I'm just so glad it's
over."

"I think it's great," Karl said. "I really don't have a
tremendous understanding of everything that went on. I don't
live in Orlando and don't read the papers in Orlando. As I
said before the game, I don't try to create hell for anybody."

McGrady made his coach look like genius Tueaday as he made
18-of-35 shots from the field, including 6-of-9 from 3-point
range as he fell two points shy of his career high.

The electrifying swingman had 30 points in the first half,
helping Orlando open a 54-38 lead. McGrady's point total in
the half was four short of Shaquille O'Neal's team record set
against Minnesota on April 20, 1994.

"It's sweet, it's real sweet," McGrady said. "For a team to
beat you 10 consecutive times, it just feels like they've got
your number. We had confidence going into this game because the
last time we played them in Milwaukee, we were basically
beating them for three quarters and gave the game away. So we
had confidence we were a better team than them."

Pat Garrity added 21 points -- all on 3-pointers --- for the
Magic, who beat Milwaukee in the regular season for the first
time since April 9, 1999. Orlando won once during last year's
first-round playoff series.

Orlando (37-30) extended its winning streak to six games
overall and moved one-half game ahead of Milwaukee (36-30) for
fourth place in the Eastern Conference.

Sam Cassell netted 23 points and Ray Allen 22 for the Bucks,
who have lost three straight games and five of their last six.

"We still feel confident against this team," Cassell said. "If
they would have missed one of those bombs, we would've been
right in the game. We had beaten them 10 consecutive times.
Like they say, all good things must come to an end."

Milwaukee was sloppy for much of night as it committed 22
turnovers that led to 21 points for Orlando.

A basket by McGrady early in the third quarter helped the Magic
open their largest lead at 58-38. But the Bucks showed some
resiliency and attempted to rally.

Allen drilled a pair of 3-pointers, Cassell made a basket and
Glenn Robinson hit a short jumper that narrowed the deficit to
10. The Magic responded with a 16-8 burst, including half of
the points by McGrady, for a 74-56 bulge with three minutes
left in the period.

Like they did in the third, the Bucks attempted to rally in the
fourth. Allen sank his fourth 3-pointer with 4:28 to play,
pulling Milwaukee within 95-87. After that basket, the Bucks
went scoreless for nearly four minutes until Darvin Ham scored
with 45 seconds left.

Just under a minute after Allen's basket, Garrity made his
seventh shot from beyond the arc to seal it for Orlando.
Garrity was 7-of-10 from 3-point range and missed his only four
shots within the arc.

Sparked by Garrity and McGrady, the Magic went 13-of-26 from
3-point range. Milwaukee was 6-of-18 from the arc.

"Pat Garrity getting seven or eight threes or whatever," Karl
said "Every time I thought we had a chance, he would make one.
We just didn't react very well to their dynamite 3-point
shooting."

Early on, it looked like the Bucks would continue their
dominance of Orlando as they scored 10 of the game's first 12
points. McGrady, however, had other ideas.

McGrady netted 15 of his 17 first-quarter points during a 31-11
run that gave the Magic a 33-23 lead. He made 10-of-15 shots
in the half, helping the Magic to their comfortable advantage.